Underground Favorites Mirroring the Impact of The Grim Game: Cult G...

Dir: Irvin Willat

Peter Kennedy, a pernicious landlord who desires his tenant, Nora McCree, realizes that the only way to possess Nora is to eliminate her husband Patrick. To accomplish this, Kennedy arranges a fight between Patrick and another man, in which the latter is badly wounded. Patrick is told that his opponent has died, and at Kennedy's suggestion, joins the army and goes to Africa to fight the Boers. In his absence, Kennedy, unable to win Nora by fair means, does everything in his power to make her feel the pinch of poverty and thus capitulate to him. Things are at their worst for the McCree family when little Eileen, after listening to fairy tales told to her by the Irishman Flynn, dreams of her father and finds him the next day, unconscious under a large tree after having been waylaid by Kennedy upon his return home. With Patrick's return, Kennedy's plans are dashed, and the McCree family is united once again.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Guilty Man perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Marie Dubois, deeply in love with young lawyer Claude Lescuyer, entrusts her honor to him, but shortly before the birth of their child, he abandons her. In order to legitimize her daughter Claudine, Marie weds Flambon, the brutal owner of a Paris café. Eighteen years later, Flambon orders Claudine to work in the café, where she falls in love with Gaston, a waiter. Because Flambon owes a large sum of money to Jean, the café's former proprietor, he promises him the hand of his daughter in marriage. Claudine refuses to part with Gaston, which so enrages Flambon that he beats the girl and nearly kills Marie. To save her mother's life, Claudine shoots her stepfather and is subsequently tried for murder. The prosecutor, Claude Lescuyer, learns to his shame that the defendant is his own child, and in the courtroom, he names himself as the guilty man. The jury exonerates Claudine, and she is united with Gaston.

Dir: Irvin Willat

When Adam Larey, a young mining engineer, shoots his brother Guerd in a quarrel and wounds the sheriff in escaping from town, he seeks refuge in the desert and is saved by Dismukes, an old prospector. After severe hardships, he stumbles on the home of the Vireys, the parents of his sweetheart, Ruth. Virey, who believes his wife is unfaithful, starts an avalanche which destroys both himself and his wife. Adam informs Ruth of the tragedy, and she urges him to return to atone for his past. He finds his brother has sustained only a minor injury, and thus he is free to marry Ruth.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Wanderer of the Wasteland perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

The Zeppelin's Last Raid concerns the conflict of a youthful commander of a German airship engaged in bombing raids, whose sweetheart is a member of a rebel group working to overthrow the German Kaiser towards the end of World War One.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Hung Chin Chung, a philosopher of noble birth, is deported from Hawaii to his native China, where he faces certain death at the hands of his enemies. American millionaire Henry Drew offers to reprieve Hung, if the young philosopher becomes his indentured servant for the next twenty years. Rage at his humiliation and inability to marry as a free man smolders in Hung throughout his servitude. Toward the end of his indenture, Hung sails to San Francisco, California, with Drew and his wife. Also on board is Drew's business associate, Ralph Coolidge, who is in love with Mary-Will Tellfair, the millionaire's stenographer. Shortly after their arrival, Drew is stabbed to death, and suspicion falls on Ralph, the owner of the curious Chinese dagger that is identified as the murder weapon. However, subsequent events lead Hung to confess to the crime.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Zeppelin's Last Raid perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Alain de Montcalm is the son of a French trading post proprietor. When a murder and kidnapping occur, Alain pursues the abducted girl and her captor across the far northern wasteland of ice.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A young woman inherits her father's large Texas ranch and plans to begin a cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas, 1000 miles away. The crooked State Treasurer plans to attack the cattle drive and steal all of the stock so he can gain control of her ranch.

Dir: Irvin Willat

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Fifty Candles perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Drakma, an international spy, seeks the possession of the triangulator (a device emitting electronic death rays), which radio expert Alan Holt invented for the United States Government. Mary Walsworth manages to smash the machine before Drakma can get it; therefore, the villain captures Alan and Mary, puts Mary on a rum-runner, and leaves Alan on an island to build another triangulator--under threat of Mary's death. Instead, Alan builds a radio and broadcasts an SOS, which is answered by Admiral Walsworth, Mary's father. Alan gets to the rum-runner on a raft, and holds off the crew until sailors arrive to the rescue.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Molly Townsend, engaged to Luis Riccardi, learns from Capt. John Locke half an hour before the wedding that Riccardi is a thief and a smuggler. Locke, Riccardi's rival for Molly, persuades Molly to sail away with him in his boat bound for South America. He is thrown overboard by the cutthroat crew, and crew leader Jordan nearly makes her his victim before Locke, who has saved himself, rescues her. Riccardi and Jordan, who murdered a man in the Townsend home and stole a diamond necklace, are both jailed.

Dir: Irvin Willat

Nance Pelot is bravely trying to support herself and her father Joe, the town drunk, by playing piano in an unsavory roadside inn owned by Larry Shayne. Chet Todd, the son of a shop owner, is in love with her, but her reputation has been sullied by her profession, so Chet's mother disapproves of her. Nance inherits a small farm from her mother, and when Shayne discovers that the property is valuable, he plots to cheat her out of her inheritance. After a series of misadventures, including a revival meeting and a blinding snowstorm, Joe stops drinking and Chet rescues the farm from Shayne. When Nance sells the property, she gains a respectable income, as well as the respect of the community and her future mother-in-law.